Roll on the Feinberg

I had to accompany someone while they underwent an MRI scan this weekend. (The link is a picture to the exact model used though not the actual scanner itself). I have never realised how LOUD one of those machines actually is. I had to wear ear-defenders and when they slipped it was like being up against the speakers at a Prodigy Gig. Of course it is far worse actually being inside the thing. You begin to get paranoid when they start asking you about any metal you might have on your person. Of course metal fragments in the eye and shrapnel are really a problem though thankfully not this time.

''The Dream of Reason brings forth Monsters'

The 'Tony Blair' Sympathy Clause :-

What follows is simple rambling and in no way should be taken as a definite opinion on the 'rightness' or 'wrongness' of er.... anything. Look! I do understand your position.

Is this something to do with Occam's Razor again? Of course it will be used as 'proof' of some of the more disreputable facets of spirituality. There is a weird sense of self-reference in the implicit denial of the validity of 'other' religions (Those which you do not practice). I know there is some wavering in the belief in the occult and ghosts etc by various divisions of the Christian Church and I can't comment on the opinions of other religions, but if a religion states its belief in its own structure and the consequent belief in the corresponding 'dark side' (eg. Satan and hell) but denies the correctness of other religions, it is creating a logical hole. Of course, the fact that faith is also involved means that logic is not really part of the process. I am not good at writing absolutely logical statements about such matters but the whole field is obviously prone to this problem. Science does not exclude the existence of spirituality, but nor can it prove it ... ever. We examine further into the structure of matter, of fields and of the mind and we never reach a point of proof. I have been here before haven't I? Maybe the final entry into the lands where spirituality helps 100% is triggered by the acceptance that spirituality can never be proved. Then of course there are all the arguments about whether the mind itself is the home of all religious feeling. Ok! I know. All of this rubbish just to say that you 'gotta have faith'. We are back to the fact that discussions about angels on the heads of a pin are completely meaningless and probably just sounded good after a glass or two too much mead, before walking round the cloisters.

Of course, Joan of Arc's voices were real to her and if they were just 'madness' (what is the PC word these days?) then they were a madness that kicked the English out of France. We are back to a question of the correctness of religions. Everyone thinks God is on their side (which probably means that He is). Of course the great atheist-agnostic wars of the late 20s didn't have this problem but they were fought with reason (sometimes logically flawed) over glasses of absythne in Parisan bars. Intermittent skirmishes are still going on and some very old soldiers still hide out in Place de la Concorde, with the idea that the war is still going on.

I have just finished Joan of Arc - In her own Words which will explain the sudden appearance of The Maid Jehanne above. One of her voices was Saint Margaret. I am trying to work out why Joan was asked if Saint Margaret spoke English. There are at least two Saint Margarets, one of Scotland and the one who Joan saw who was from Pisidian Antioch. Maybe the inquisitors were confused or just thick. Maybe they wanted to catch Joan out. There is something about the Scottish Saint Margaret at the Abbot House in Dunfermline. I have just found it here on the web but the picture of the Head shrine is missing. This is only a copy of the real thing and as it says the original is missing, lost in the French revolution. There is something more I will tell you later but for now it is back to work.